Chapter 3: Admitting A Murder

He returned with a handful of tissue, the dishcloth and a towel. As he mopped the worst off his chest with the tissues, he told him, ‘Remember how nice that felt and after we have sorted you out, think about looking for another partner.’

Once the worst was off, he washed his chest with the dish cloth then dried him with the towel. Paul lay there enjoying every minute. Finally, he took one corner of the wet cloth and very gently wiped the end of his cock. That brought another ecstatic cry from Paul.

Returning from putting the tissues in the waste bin, he sat at his side and started massaging his cock and balls again. ‘I’ll just finish off as planned,’ he said, ‘Then we should sail through everything else.’

After a stroke over every inch of his cock with his index finger Danny moved onto his abdomen and worked his way up to finished off on his head.

As he took his hands off, Paul sighed happily and said, ‘Wow, I would never have guessed in a month of Sundays that being counselled could be so wonderful.’

‘Sit up.’ Danny said holding his arms out. Paul sat up and as Danny put his arms around him, he put his round Danny and rested his head on his shoulder. As Danny hugged him Paul asked, ‘Danny, do you know what the problem is?’ ‘Yes, I think so.’ Danny said, ‘Both of them.’

‘But how could you?’ Paul said sounding perplexed, ‘There was only me there.’ ‘A combination of things,’ Danny told him. ‘I could of course be completely wrong. If I were to sum them up in three words I’d say Burglar, Body and Rape.’ He felt Paul sag in his arms. ‘Oh my God,’ he said, ‘You must be psychic.’

Danny held him tight and stroked the back of his head. ‘You’ve never been more relaxed with anyone than you are with me at this moment.’ he told him. ‘In a moment we’ll change position. Then I want you to tell me every little detail of what happened on that Monday night. We’ll sort that out first then we’ll look at the older one.’

He kept hold of him a little longer, feeling his tension ebbing as he stroked his head and occasionally his back. When he felt he was relaxed again, Danny told him to stand up.

Paul stood waiting whilst Danny sat down at the end of the settee, not in the least bothered now that he was stark naked. ‘Come and lie down with your head on my lap.’ Danny instructed.

Once Paul was settled, Danny rested one hand on his head and massaged very slowly and gently. His other hand he laid flat covering Paul’s limp cock and his hairs.

‘Put everything else out of your mind,’ Danny told him. ‘Start from when you went to bed on that fateful Monday night and try not to miss out even the smallest detail through to tonight. Remember I’m here to help you, not to judge you.’

Paul smiled at him, ‘I will,’ he said, ‘I just have a feeling that you are going to sort it all out and it won’t be half as bad as I anticipated.’ He took a deep breath and began.

‘I have lived alone for a year now as you know since Sally died, but it was only recently that I had started to get a full night’s sleep. Sally had been a light sleeper, so I always relied on her to hear any noises at night, then give me a dig in the ribs to wake me if necessary. Since being alone I was uncomfortably aware that if I dropped off into the deep sleep I usually slept, a burglar could probably empty the house without disturbing me. Indeed, he could probably even steal the bed from under me.’

‘It hadn’t helped that over the last few months there have been several instances locally of people waking up to find a burglar in their home, then being violently attacked. One man had almost died as a result. Even a ninety-year-old lady who couldn’t have possibly put up any resistance had been beaten within an inch of her life.’

‘A few Mondays ago, I had gone to bed later than usual. I had had a busy day and when I came home, I’d caught up with working out some estimates, so when I eventually came up to bed, I was ready to crash out quickly. When I got into bed and put the light out, I was restless, I have no idea why. I think it must have been at least half an hour before I was almost dropping off to sleep.’

‘Something disturbed me, and I turned over in bed and sleepily opened one eye. It was still dark, and all was quiet, so I turned over to go back to sleep. Then the noise that had first disturbed me came again. This time, being more awake, I heard it properly and sat up in bed, listening carefully.’

‘I sat there in the dark, listening hard, thinking what to do next. I had my phone by the bed, but I wanted to be sure what had disturbed me before I raised any alarm.’

‘Then it came again, a sort of scraping noise which sounded as if it was on the landing. I decided to risk investigating further, so I carefully climbed out of bed. I put my slippers and dressing gown on, then slipping my phone into my pocket, I picked up the six-foot pole I kept in the corner of the bedroom. Slowly and quietly, I opened the bedroom door wide enough to put my head through.’

‘Looking out onto the landing, there was just enough moonlight to see that it was completely empty, but as I looked, I became aware that outside the landing window was the silhouette of a person doing something to my landing window. Presumably he was up a ladder as this was on the first floor.’

‘I knew my own ladder was chained up around the back of the house, so the intruder had either cut the chains or brought his own ladder. As it was now round about three a.m., it was a definite conclusion that this was a burglar. Whether it was the violent one or not, I had no way of telling, but for my own safety I had to presume that it was, therefore in my mind, my life was at risk.’

‘I have never been a fighter. My build now shows I am strong, but that does not make me able to use it in a fight. Waiting until the intruder was actually in the house with me, seemed far too risky to allow if it could be avoided. I debated going back into the bedroom and phoning the police, but I realised with the best will in the world, the police would be unlikely to arrive before the intruder gained entry. I gripped the pole as firmly as I could with my shaking hands. It was a piece of an extra thick brush handle. I had shaped the end to a narrow but blunt point with no real idea what I would do with it if it was ever needed.’

‘I stood for a moment, trying to decide what was the best thing to do. Should I just put the light on and possibly frighten him off or take more drastic action. I decided that frightening him off may or may not work, but it would mean that he could return. That worry would stop me sleeping for months. Also, it could simply move him on to break into someone else’s home.’

‘So, having decided on the more drastic action, I levelled the pole like a knight with his lance, tightened my grip and raced along the landing towards the window.’

‘I had had new double-glazed windows fitted to all of the downstairs a few months ago but hadn’t yet saved up enough to do upstairs. So, the landing window, like all the upstairs windows, was still the old-style timber framed, single glazed type.’

‘By the time I had covered the short distance to the window, I had built up a surprising speed, so that when the pole hit the glass it went right through, hitting the silhouette. The impact wrenched the pole out of my hand and as I crashed into the landing wall below the windowsill, it fell at my feet.’

‘As I picked myself up, I heard a solid thud of something hitting the ground outside.’

‘Getting to my feet, I surveyed my broken landing window which had shattered almost completely, just leaving a few shards stuck in the putty. Being careful not to catch myself on the sharp edges, I cautiously poked my head through the window and looked down.’

‘The first thing I saw was the top of a ladder leaning against the wall just below the window. Then my eye caught sight of bits of timber lying on the outside windowsill, clearly from the window frame. The intruder had evidently been levering at the sash to open it. Then my heart skipped a beat as I looked straight down and saw an inert body lying on the concrete path below.’